International Journal of Applied and

Natural Sciences (IJANS)

ISSN (P): 2319–4014; ISSN (E): 2319–4022
Vol. 9, Issue 4, Jun–Jul 2020; 73–80
© IASET

APPLICATION OF FRACTIONAL REGRESSION IN MODELING MAIZE FARMERS’

ADOPTION OF CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN KATSINA STATE,
NIGERIA

Muntaka Mamman1, Fawole Bolaji Emmanuel2, Akinyemi Mudashiru3 & Mati Badiya4
1,2
Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Extension & Rural Development, Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina,
Nigeria
3,4
Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina, Nigeria
ABSTRACT

Nigeria’s Maize production had been endangered and bedeviled by periodic droughts, torrents, storms and other extreme
weather events, owning to climatic fluctuations. This occasioned in food insecurity and national economic hardship. This
study sought to model the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices by the maize farmer in katsina state, Nigeria.
Multi-stage sampling procedure was used for the study. Primary data were used to elicit information from maize farmers
through pre-tested structured questionnaires. Socio economic characteristic reveals the mean age of the maize farmers to
be 48 years. This indicates that maize farmers in the study area were dominated by young people who are active and fall
within the productive age group. The mean household size of the respondents was 7. This signals that majority of the maize
farmers in the study area had larger household sizes. Further descriptive analysis shows that 30.0 % of the maize farmers
had secondary education, 22.0 % had tertiary education, 16.0 % had Arabic education, and 12.0 % had primary
education, while only 20.0 % of them had no formal education. About 68.33 % of maize farmers had farming experience of
1 – 10 years, while only 10.0 % of them had 41 – 50 years of farming experience. Fractional regression model Analysis
shows that marital status was negatively significant (P < 0.01).This connotes that the single farmers are less likely to
adopt CSAPs practice than married farmers. It then means that a unit increase in adoption by an unmarried farmer will
lead to reduction in the rate of adoption by 20.30 %. Membership of cooperatives was negatively significant (P < 0.05). It
means that involvement of the maize farmers in cooperative will less likely influence the adoption of CSAPs. Therefore, a
unit increase in cooperative fund will lead to a reduction in the adoption of CSAP s. The study concludes that CSAPs maize
farmers’ adoption in the study area cannot be predisposed absolutely by identified predictors. Youth enlightment program
that can reorientate the single farmers is needed in the area. Cooperative loan should be utilized in a good way.

KEYWORDS: Fractional-Regression, Maize-Farmer, Adoption, Climate-Smart-Agricultural

Article History
Received: 12 Nov 2019 | Revised: 06 Jul 2020 | Accepted: 16 Jul 2020

INTRODUCTION

Agricultural sector is a driver of Nigeria’s economy. Therefore, desertion of the sector is tantamount to endangering the
economic fortunes and political will of the future generation. Agricultural lands occupy about 40 to 50 % of the Earth’s
land surface (Ayanwale et al., 2013). Nigeria is blessed with massive agricultural land area, out of which less than 30 % is

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74 Muntaka Mamman, Fawole Bolaji Emmanuel, Akinyemi Mudashiru & Mati Badiya

used for agriculture. Williams (2014), estimated that agriculture is responsible for about three-quarters of tropical
deforestation and accounts for about 10 to 12 % of the total global anthropogenic emissions of Green house gases (GHGs)
in 2005 (Ayanwale et al., 2013).

Globally, the challenges of food shortage and malnutrition increase unabated in spite of networking efforts
of the developed nations and partners to eradicate hunger yet, the world needs more food than ever before to sustain
the explosive teaming population especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The last three decade in Nigeria, had witnessed a
tremendous development and promotion of several initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable agriculture. Many of
these have emphasized the need for Nigeria farmers to engage in an agricultural system that ensures food security
whilst at the same time addressing and adapting to climate change. The menace of climate change in sub-Sahara
African countries had contributed adversely to shortage of raw materials to agro-allied industries and sapped the
foreign currency. This constitutes greatly to economic loses and threaten food security and income generation
opportunities for the farming households that rely primarily on crop production both as mean of livelihood and
feeding of the local industry

Maize production in Nigeria over the years had been in inadequate, threatened and bedeviled by recurring
droughts, floods, storms and other extreme weather events, due to change in the climate. This scenario posed a great
challenge to maize production and food security and consequently draws a setback to Nigeria Economy (Shideed and
Mourid, 2005). Inadequate efforts had been made in the past by Nigeria’s government to meet up the growing demand in
nation’s maize demand. To cope with the increasing demand in maize grain, good production techniques is needed to be
employed. To this end urgent measure is needed to address this unpleasant situation and save the country from importation
of maize with hard earned foreign exchange.

Modeling agricultural production showcases the scientific method of enhancing agricultural output through
econometric model formulation and generates knowledge that allows researchers to solve complex problems or take
informed agricultural decisions

This research work, therefore intend to model maize farmers’ adoption of climate smart agricultural, identify
farmers sources of information, determine the adoption level and determine the factor influencing the adoption of climate
smart agricultural practices in the study area

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The Study Area
The study was carried out in Katsina state. The state covers an area of 23,938 square kilometer. Katsina state is located
between latitudes 11°08′N and 13°22′N and longitudes 6°52′E and 9°20′E. The state is bounded by Niger Republic to the
north, Jigawa and Kano states to the east, Kaduna state to the south and Zamfara state to the west. The state has 34 Local
Government Areas. The state was divided into three agricultural zones namely: Funtua, Ajiwa and Dutsinma. Katsina State
covers three agro-ecological zones: the Sahel, the Sudan and the Northern Guinea Savanna zones (Ogungbile et al., 1999).
The rainfall pattern in the States is unimodal and ranges between 350 and 500 mm in the Sahel, 600 and 850 mm in the
Sudan Savanna and between 900 and 1000 mm in the Northern Guinea Savanna (Ogungbile et al., 1999).

The onset of rains, which marks the beginning of the growing season, starts in May in the Northern Guinea and
June in the Sudan agroecological zones (Elemo et al., 1990). Concurrently, the duration of the growing season spreads

Impact Factor (JCC): 6.3238 NAAS Rating 3.73

Application of Fractional Regression in Modeling Maize Farmers’ Adoption of 75
Climate Smart Agricultural Practices in Katsina State, Nigeria

from a range of 140 to 200 days in the Northern Guinea, 95 to 140 days in the Sudan to 68 to 102 days in the Sahel
(Elemo et al., 1990).

The major crops grown in katsina are sorghum, millet, maize, rice, groundnut, cowpea, soybean and cotton.
Pepper, onion and tomatoes are also grown. Though sole-cropped fields of crops occur, intercropping is the dominant
practice. There is, however, always one crop dominant on any mixed-crop field (Ogungbile et al., 1999).. Livestock
production is also an integral part of the farming system as both crops and animals are sources of food and cash income for
farmers (Ogungbile et al., 1999). The livestock kept include cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, camels and poultry.

Sampling Procedures and Sampling Size

Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents for this study. The first stage, involved a purposive
selection of Kafur local government. This was due to the high concentration of maize farmers in katsina state area. The
second stage involved the random selection of five communities namely: Masari, Sabuwar kasa, Mahuta, Gozaki and kafur
from thirty five communities. In the last stage, respondents from the listed communities were proportionately chosen using
the technique of random sampling. Proportionate formula was used to determine number of respondents that was selected
from each community;

n=(x/X)*N

Where;

n= number of respondents to be selected per village

x= number of maize farmers per village

X= total number of maize farmers in the selected villages

N= sample size for the study

Table 1: Sampling Frame and Sample Size

S. No Name of Villages Number of Maize Farmers Number of Respondents Selected
1 Masari 37 25
2 Sabuwar kasa 30 20
3 Mahuta 28 19
4 Gozaki 27 18
5 kafur 27 18
Total 149 100

METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

Fractional Regression Models
Fractional Regression Models was used to model the adoption frequency of the climate Smart agricultural practices.
Fractional response estimators fit models on continuous variables whose values ranges from zero to one. Using Probity,
and Log it, as initiator. The model is specified implicitly as:

Yi= α + βi Xi

Where Yi = Adoption response which takes continuous values from 0 to 1

α = Intercept

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76 Muntaka Mamman, Fawole Bolaji Emmanuel, Akinyemi Mudashiru & Mati Badiya

βi = Parameter

Xi = Vector of explanatory variable

Explicitly, the model can be represented as:

Yi= α + βi X1 + β2 X2+ β3 X3+ β4 X4+ β5 X5+ β6 X6+ β7 X7+ β8 X8+ β9 X9+ β10 X10+ β11 X11

X1 = Age (years)

X2= Gender (1 = male, 0 = female)

X3 = House hold Size (number)

X4 = Farming Experience (Years)

X5 = Farm Size (Hectares)

X6 = Monthly Income (Naira)

X7 = Access to credit (1= Yes, No=0)

X8 = Extension agent Contact (1= Yes, No=0)

X9 = Membership of Cooperative (1= Yes, No=0)

X10 = Marital Status (Dummy = 1 if married; 0, if otherwise)

X11 = Educational Status (Dummy = 1 if educated; 0, if other

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Socio-Economic Characteristics
The results in Table 2 revealed that 24.0 % of the respondents were between 4150years of age, while the least age range71-
80 years were just 7.0 % of the sampled population. The mean age of the respondents was 48years. This indicates that
maize farmers in the study area were dominated by young people who are active and fall within the productive age group.
The result agrees with the findings of Ojoko et al., (2017), who reported that majority of the respondents (44.17 %) were
between the ages of 46 to 60, which forms the active years of the farmers and therefore, they are strong enough to engage
in agricultural practices.

Moreover, results in Table 2 showed that majority (91.0 %) of the respondents were males, while (8.0 %) were
females. This implies that there were more male maize farmers in the study area. Majority (79.0 %) of the respondents
were married, 12.0 % were single, while only 4.0 % of them were divorced. This results implied that majority of
respondents were married. This finding is similar to that of Olaniyi and Ismaila (2016) who reported that majority (84 %)
of the sampled maize farmers were males and married respectively.

With reference to household size, most (43.0 %) of the maize farmer’s had household size between 610, while
only (3.0 %) of them had household size between 2125. The mean household size of the respondents was 7. This indicate
that majority of the maize farmers in the study area had larger household sizes. This finding is similar to that of Olaniyi and
Ismaila (2016) who reported that majority of the maize farmers in Ondo State had a large household size.

Impact Factor (JCC): 6.3238 NAAS Rating 3.73

Application of Fractional Regression in Modeling Maize Farmers’ Adoption of 77
Climate Smart Agricultural Practices in Katsina State, Nigeria

More also, the results showed that 30.0 % of the maize farmers had secondary education, 22.0 % had tertiary
education, 16.0 % had Arabic education, 12.0 % had primary education, while only 20.0 % of them had no formal
education. About 68.33 % of maize farmers had farming experience of 110 years, while only 10.0 % of them had 4150
years of farming experience. The mean farming experience of the maize farmers was 21years implying that almost all the
maize farmers in the study area had longer years of working experience and this gave them advantage of adopting climate
smart agricultural practices. This finding agrees with that of Ojoko et al., (2017), who reported that majority of the rural
farmers in Sokoto State, had farming experience of 16 to 30 years.

As indicated on the table, most (38.0 %) of the maize farmers had farm size of 2 hectares, while only 5.0 % of them had
farm size of 5 hectares. The mean farm size of the respondent was 2 hectares. This indicates that majority of the maize farmers in
the study area were small scale farmers. The result from Table 1 showed that about 44 % of the maize farmers earned < 20,000,
33.0 % of them earned between 20,00040,000, 10.0 % of them earned between 40,00160,000, 4.0 % of them earned between
60,00180,000, 4.0 % of them earned between 80,001100,000 while only 5 % of them earned > 100,000. This indicate that the
maize farmers in the study area were average income earners, hence they may possess the financial muscle required to purchase
and practice smart agricultural practices. As showed in the Table 1, majority (87.0 %) of the respondents had no access to credit,
while only 13.0 % of them had access to credit. This implies that majority of the maize farmers in the study area do not have
access to credit. Majority (74.0 %) of the maize farmers do not have access to extension officer, while 26.0 % had access to
extension officers. Also most 75.0 % of the maize farmers were not members of a cooperative societies, while only few (25.0 %)
of them are members of the cooperatives societies.

Table 2: Distribution of Respondents According to Socio-economic

Characteristics (n=100)
Characteristics Frequency Percentage Mean
Age (Years)
21 – 30 12 12.0
31 – 40 22 22.0 48.79
41 – 50 24 24.0
51 – 60 16 16.0
61 – 70 26 26.0
Sex
Male 91 91.0
Female 9 9.0
Marital status
Single 16 16.0
Married 84 84.0
Household Size (Persons)
1–5 33 33.0
6 – 10 43 43.0 7.88
11 – 15 17 17.0
> 16 7 7.0
Educational Level
No formal education 20 20.0
Arabic education 16 16.0
Primary education 12 12.0
Secondary education 30 30.0
Tertiary education 22 22.0
Farming Experience (Years)
1 – 10 30 68.3
11 – 20 25 12.5
21 – 30 19 8.3

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78 Muntaka Mamman, Fawole Bolaji Emmanuel, Akinyemi Mudashiru & Mati Badiya

31 – 40 26 10 20.89
Farm Size (ha)
<1 30 30.0
1–3 56 56.0
>3 14 14.0
Monthly Income (N)
< 20,000 44 44.0
20,000 – 40,000 33 33.0
40,001 – 60,000 10 10.0 32310.00
60,001 – 80,000 4 4.0
80,001 – 100,000 4 4.0
> 100,000 5 5.0
Source: Field Survey, (2018)

Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Practices among Maize Farmers

Table 3 shows the result of percentage distributions of the respondents on their adoption of CSAPs. The result revealed that
majority (98.0 %) of the respondents adopted the use of organic manure, (90.0 %) adopted crop rotation, (85.0 %) adopted
mixed cropping, (82.0 %) adopted use of cover cropping, (63.0 %) adopted minimum tillage and (56.0 %) adopted use of
drought and heat tolerant crop varieties. About (42.0 %) of them adopted irrigation, (37.0 %) adopted afforestation, (36.0
%) adopted use of wet land (Fadama), while only few (21.0 %) of them adopted mixed farming/strip cropping, (15.0 %)
adopted mulching, (10.0 %) adopted water harvesting and (3.0 %) adopted agro-forestry. This implies that CSAPs adoption
in the study area is widespread among the farmers.

Table 3: Distribution of the Respondents Base on their Adoption of CSAPS

Climate Smart Agricultural Practices Frequency Percentage (%)
Use of cover cropping 82 82.0
Minimum tillage 63 63.0
Mulching 15 15.0
Mixed farming 21 21.0
Mixed cropping 85 85.0
Crop rotation 90 90.0
Afforestation 37 37.0
Strip cropping 21 21.0
Use of drought and heat tolerant crop varieties 56 56.0
Use of organic manure 98 98.0
Water harvesting 10 10.0
Use of wet land ( Fadama) 36 36.0
Irrigation 42 42.0
Agro-forestry 3 3.0
Source: Field Survey, (2018)

Factors that influence the Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Practices among the Maize Farmers
The result of the fractional regression analysis in Table 4 shows the factors that influence adoption of CSAPs by the maize
farmers in Kafur Local Government Area Katsina State. From the table, two variables were significant; these are marital
status and membership of cooperative.

Marital status was negatively significant (P < 0.01).This connotes that the single farmers are less likely to adopt CSAPs
practice than married farmers. It then means that a unit increase in adoption by an unmarried farmer will lead to reduction in the
rate of adoption by 20.30 %. The results corroborate the work of Ekpa et al., (2017), who found out that married farmers were
significantly higher in terms of the use of climate smart agriculture for maize enterprise than their counterparts.

Impact Factor (JCC): 6.3238 NAAS Rating 3.73

Application of Fractional Regression in Modeling Maize Farmers’ Adoption of 79
Climate Smart Agricultural Practices in Katsina State, Nigeria

The result also shows that membership of cooperatives was negatively significant (P<0.05). It means that
involvement of the maize farmers in cooperative will less likely influence the adoption of CSAPs. Therefore, a unit
increase in cooperative fund will lead to a reduction in the adoption of CSAPs. The result is contrary to the findings of
Ojoko et al., (2017), who reported that member of a social group influenced the use of CSAPs in Sokoto State, Nigeria.

Table 4: Factors that Influence the Maize Farmer's Adoption Using Fractional Response Model
Variables Marginal Effect Standard Error Z-value Probability
Age -0.0569 0.0533 -1.07 0.285
Sex 0.0639 0.1099 0.58 0.561
House hold Size 0.0 934 0.0589 1.59 0.113
Farming Experience -0.0387 0.1026 -0.38 0.706
Farm Size -0.0084 0.3669 -0.23 0.819
Monthly Income -0.0318 0.0368 -0.86 0.387
Access to credit 0.0236 0.0208 1.14 0.255
Extension agent Contact -0.0261 0.1186 -0.22 0.826
Membership of Cooperative -0.1362 -0.6784** -2.01 0.045
Marital Status -0.2030 0.0716*** -2.84 0.005
Educational Status 0.0063 0.0347 0.18 0.855
Constant -0.0042 0.0559 -0.08 0.940
Log likelihood ratio=- 67.17479
Degrees of freedom = 13
Source: Field survey, 2018
= Significant at 10 %
= Significant at 5 %
= Significant at 1 %

CONCLUSIONS

The findings from this study show that majority of the respondents have adopted the use of organic manure, crop rotation,
mixed cropping, use of cover cropping, minimum tillage and use of drought and heat tolerant crop varieties. Inferential
statistics affirmed that membership of cooperative and marital status was factors that are statistically significant thus
influencing the rate of adoption of CSAPs in the study area. Finally, CSAPs maize farmers’ adoption in the study cannot be
predisposed absolutely by identified predictors.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings, discussions and conclusions Drawn from this study. It can therefore be recommended that the single
farmers should be encouraged in use of climate smart agricultural practices so that they can be more dynamic in adoption
process. Youth enlightment program that can reorientate the single farmers is needed in the study area. Cooperative loan
should be utilized in a good way in the study area. Efficient and trained extension workers are also recommended in order
to provide training and teaching in climate smart agricultural practices education for agricultural production.

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80 Muntaka Mamman, Fawole Bolaji Emmanuel, Akinyemi Mudashiru & Mati Badiya

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Impact Factor (JCC): 6.3238 NAAS Rating 3.73